Stalin & Me

Thanks to a video featuring Michael Tilson Thomas and posted by Patty, Miss Mussel has discovered that she and Stalin have something in common. Thankfully, it is not the mustache. While Miss Mussel favours the Chick Corea/Bobby McFerrin version, really anything will do in a pinch.

The bigger question is however: does this association mean Miss Mussel is also in some way evil? The tiresome logic often goes that the liking by an Evil Person of a Neutral Artefact means ipso facto, that the Artefact becomes evil. The implication is often then, that the Appreciator of the now Evil Artefact is therefore evil by association. Like a poor grasp of human behaviour norms and an insatiable thirst for power is somehow catching.

This revisionist viewpoint does have its drawbacks. During his lifetime, Stalin was accorded outrageously sycophantic titles but, since she rejects outright the evil as H1N1 argument, Miss Mussel is therefore disqualified from snatching even a lumen of the adulation for herself. It’s a shame, really. Brilliant Genius of Humanity has quite a nice ring to it.